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Rhythms 89
-
CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF RHYTHMS MAGAZINE -
VInyl REVIEwS
lamBCHoP
floTuS
City Slang/Inertia
COUNTRY-SOUL
Longstanding Nashville contrarians Lambchop have returned with their 12th album
FLOTUS – shorthand for For Love Often Turns Us – which moves the amorphous band
away from the trademark ambient country-soul template which has served them so well
for over 30 years into more electronic realms. The move is the brainchild of frontman
and creative mainstay Kurt Wagner and is a subtle shift for the most part, although some
of the heavily-processed vocals and sequencer sections need some getting used to for
long-term listeners (although Wagner himself seems to take to this new sonic territory
like a duck to water). The refined guitars of yore are all but absent, replaced by jazz-flecked
piano, synth and quiet, syncopated beats – the results both wispy and wistful – while
lyrically the album seems to be a paean to Wagner’s wife, a cumulative treatise on love and
enduring relationships. The vinyl version of FLOTUS comes on 2-LP 180gm vinyl with a
gatefold sleeve, the final of the four sides being taken up by reverb-heavy, predominantly-
instrumental closer ‘The Hustle’. It’s an epic finale to this ambitious and somewhat cryptic
set, a record which really needs to be held up against the entire Lambchop catalogue to
understand its true import to their canon.
BriGHt eyes
I’M WIDE AWAKE, IT’S MORNING
Saddle Creek
HEARTFELT INDIE-FOLK
Starting out in the mid-‘90s, Omaha-bred indie-folk outfit Bright Eyes were the vehicle
for young singer-songwriter Conor Oberst to lay out his angsty, lyric-heavy treatises on
modern malaise, aided in his quest by multi-instrumentalist cohorts Mike Mogis and Nate
Walcott and a revolving cast of musicians. Their acclaimed 2005 album I’m Wide Awake,
It’s Morning has just been remastered for vinyl by legendary mastering engineer Bob
Ludwig (who’s mastered for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney
and Nirvana) as part of a full catalogue reissue, and as a result sounds both richer and
warmer than its previous sonic incarnation. Released simultaneously at the time with the
more electronic-leaning Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, the record was inspired by the proto-
Americana of Gram Parsons (to the point where Emmylou Harris provided backing vocals
on three of the tracks) and the songs’ laidback cadences are rife with pedal steel guitar and
mandolin, making it their most country-sounding collection. The “next Dylan” tag that
Oberst was burdened with for so long has since been passed to the next poor troubadour
to befall the fate, but I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning is a fine reminder of a time when the
talented songsmith really did have the musical world at his feet.
sly & tHe family stone
STanD!
Sony
FUNK/PSYCHEDELIC SOUL
The fourth album from maverick San Franciscan funk ensemble Sly & The Family Stone
put the band firmly on the road to stardom, released in 1969 just weeks before their now
famous performance at Woodstock. The new 180gm audiophile vinyl reissue – in beautiful
gatefold sleeve – is a veritable melting pot of influences, showboating a diverse and eclectic
fusion of styles always grafted with visionary arrangements and an innate pop sensibility.
Flamboyant frontman and songwriter Sly Stone wasn’t afraid to get political on Stand! –
whether via the rights-affirming title track, the cruisy, prejudice-bashing ‘Everyday People’
or the incredibly prescient ‘Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey’, which exists as both a bluesy
slab of urban funk and a febrile statement against racism – while elsewhere topics were of
a more carnal nature (vampy 14-minute jam ‘Sex Machine’ and even Hall Of Fame single ‘I
Want To Take You Higher’). Stand! has stood the test of time wonderfully – definitely the
high water mark of Sly & The Family Stone’s lauded career – chock full of songs that have
not only survived in their own right in the cultural lexicon but which have also provided
cool funk breaks for generations of hip hop producers and samplers.
STEVE BELL